


mental wounds still screaming

by m3owww



Series: maribat [13]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Also lots of torture, F/M, Heavy Angst, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Joker Jr., Tim Drake-centric, Tim is the main focus, Whump, both mental and physical, definitely whump, don't think it's that graphic personally but others might, the other characters are just mentioned in passing, with Mari being second most important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:14:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27766561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3owww/pseuds/m3owww
Summary: Anon: Mari? ---oh, i’m hallucinating" with TimariTim Drake isn't crazy.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: maribat [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842979
Comments: 29
Kudos: 105





	mental wounds still screaming

**Author's Note:**

> nobody ever told me it was this fun to write crazy people and tim drake whump. no one. I was having the time of my life writing this.

Tim isn’t crazy.

He’s not. It’s not him that’s crazy, it’s J.J.

**But you are J.J.**

_ No I’m not! _

**Denial isn’t going to change the truth. We’re one and the same, so if I’m crazy, you’re crazy. We’re both crazy.**

Tim’s not crazy.

Sure, he can’t look at himself in the mirror anymore, can’t glance at any reflective surface without his head screaming with maniacal laughter, but he’s not crazy. Really, he isn’t.

He can’t look at himself in the mirror, because it’s not Tim that stares back at him. It’s Joker Junior, with his paper white skin and black dyed hair that’s growing in green at the roots, the scars on his face pulling his mouth into a permanent smile no matter how much he frowns.

**If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!**

_ I’m not clapping. _

**That’s okay if you can’t accept it yet. Our smile says it all!**

Tim is not crazy.

* * *

_ What’s your name? _

**Robin.**

Lightning crackles through his veins, and he bites his tongue to keep from screaming.

_ What’s your name? _

**Robin.**

He doesn’t know how much longer he can take it.

_ What’s your name? _

**R-Robin.**

Please, Bruce, Dick, Babs, Mari, anyone-

_ What’s your name? _

**Rob… Robin.**

He just wants to go home.

* * *

Tim is not crazy. He’s really not, because it’s J.J. that’s insane.

J.J. is the one that sees ghosts, illusions that follow him everywhere, always giggling in the background like something is funny.

**It is funny! Everything’s funny!**

_ It’s not funny! Nothing’s funny. _

**Hahahaha! Just keep telling yourself that, little bird. You’ll see!**

And Tim sees.

He sees Kon and Bart and Cassie in the corner of the study, wide grins on their faces.

He sees his father and mother in the halls, towering over him, their smiles bigger than they’d ever been in real life, if the smiles were even there at all.

He sees Bruce and Dick and Alfred all around the house, and the only way he can tell if they’re real or not is by asking.

The hallucinations always respond with laughs.

**Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…**

There’s one person that he hasn’t seen yet though.

He’s not really sure why he hasn’t. 

After all, everyone else who has ever meant anything to him, alive or dead, has now trailed after him at some point or another, their quiet giggles becoming shrieks of laughter whenever he messes up, no matter how minor the mistake, and sometimes they laugh at nothing, nothing at all.

(Timothy Jackson Drake isn’t crazy. He’s not crazy, crazy, crazy.)

**But you’re not Timothy Jackson Drake, are you? You’re Joker Junior.**

_ No, you’re Joker Junior. I’m Tim. _

**We’re the same, little bird. I’m you, you’re me, so if I’m J.J, then so are you!**

But why hasn’t he seen her?

* * *

_ HAHAHAHAHA! _

**Ladybug!**

A sickening crunch, Harley’s mallet splintering bone. A scream that isn’t his.

_ Are you ready to cooperate yet, son? _

Don’t do it, Robin. Whatever happens to me, don’t comply with them!

Another crunch. Another scream.

**Stop, please, stop!**

_ It stops when you agree, Junior! _

**My name is not Junior!**

_ Have it your way. Harley? _

Of course, Puddin’!

Her scream is weaker this time, and he can hear her chest rattle when she draws another breath.

**I-I’ll come with you, but only if you let her go.**

Robin, no!

_ That’s my boy! _

He said he’d let her go. That he’d stop hurting her. 

Dad was a liar.

* * *

Tim sees ghosts now.

**Ashes, ashes, we all fall down…**

He also sees people who are alive.

**Wouldn’t it be fun to put a butter knife through Dick’s eye?**

But the one person he never sees is the one he wants to see the most.

**Jack and Jill went up the hill...**

* * *

J.J. knows that Dad has to hurt him because he’s being bad. He knows that Dad doesn’t like hurting him any more than he does, so he just bears the pain, because he must deserve it if Dad is hurting him.

There’s a limp, unmoving body in the corner of his vision, covered in red.

J.J. giggles at that. The body’s dressed in red, but also drenched in slowly spreading red, red, red, so much red-

Junior throws his head back and cackles at everything and nothing at all.

* * *

Tim wakes up with her hovering over him, feeling her fingers comb through his hair, just the way he likes it.

“Mari?” He asks, because his mind makes him see illusions, ghosts and people that aren’t really there.

Suddenly, the feeling of her fingers in his hair is gone and his head rings with her laughter, but it’s different.

Her laughter is light and carefree, clear and melodious like wind chimes.

“Oh, I’m hallucinating,” He says to himself, because this? This is maniacal, crazy, insane.

**Ha! Insane! Just like us!**

_ I’m not crazy! _

**You hear that laughter? That’s not her laughter, that’s yours, silly!**

J.J. is right.

Sometime during his conversation with himself, the sound of her laughter had shifted and morphed into his own.

Tim Drake- no, Joker Junior- curls up in a ball and laughs and laughs and laughs, because there are voices in his head and ghosts in his vision and scars in his mind and all over his body and he’s crazy, crazy, crazy.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to scream at me on [ tumblr ](https://m3owww.tumblr.com) about that ending.


End file.
